Full House Book Cafe

Full House Book Cafe

Full House is a stylish bookstore and cafe run by the critically-acclaimed novelist Yu Miri. It is located near the JR Odaka Station in Minamisoma City, in the coastal area of Fukushima prefecture.

Full House is located on the ground floor of a refurbished house. The interior is wooden and elegant, and there is a selection of books in Japanese chosen by the author. The cafe serves meals like pasta and doria, as well as desserts and drinks with seasonal options.

Yu Miri is famously known for her novel Tokyo Ueno Station (translated into English by Morgan Giles), which won the U.S. National Book Award in the Translated Literature category in 2019.

Following 3.11, Ms. Miri has worked extensively to communicate the stories of residents of evacuated towns and villages in Fukushima’s coastal area, and has been living in Minamisoma City since 2015.

When Ms. Miri moved to Minamisoma, there were no other bookstores open in the area —the few bookstores that had been there before 3.11 had closed following the evacuation—, so she decided to open her own in 2018, and named it ‘Full House’ after one of her novels.

But something was missing. She quickly realized that people who traveled all the way to visit the store wanted to sit down with a warm drink, and there weren’t many restaurants or cafes nearby yet, so she decided to turn Full House into a book cafe the following year.

Today, Full House is a lively and cozy hub where locals and visitors can bond over their love of coffee and literature.

Venue Details

Venue Details
Websitehttps://odaka-fullhouse.jp/fullhouse/
Contact

https://odaka-fullhouse.jp/contact/

Best SeasonAll Year
Opening Hours

Tuesday to Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (Last order at the cafe is at 4:30 p.m.)

Closed: Sundays and Mondays

ParkingNot available (there is a parking space in front of JR Odaka Station, located 220 m away)
Access Details
Access1-10 Higashimachi, Odaka, Minamisoma City, Fukushima Pref. 979-2121
View directions
Getting there

By Public Transportation: 3 min. walk from JR Odaka Station (JR Joban Line)

By Car: 22 min from the Minamisoma I.C. exit (Joban Expressway)

Related trips

  1. Driving

    One-Day Drive in Minamisoma City

    Located in the Northeastern part of Fukushima prefecture, Minamisoma City is one of the main hubs in the prefecture’s coastal area. The city perhaps draws the most crowds in July for the Soma Nomaoi festival, an event featuring horseback riders in samurai attire, which developed from an ancient samurai practice of military drills with horses. Outside of the event times, visitors can still experience Minamisoma’s equine traditions year-long. Once a vital enclave for the Soma samurai clan, Minamisoma specialized in manufacturing and the military during the most pressing years of Japan’s modernization. Many samurai customs continued; for one, people kept breeding and caring for horses even when this practice disappeared from most other places in Japan. In 2011, the city suffered greatly from the triple disaster triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Despite difficulties, people have sought to pass on their heritage to new generations, adapting samurai traditions to modern times to continue cultivating their love for horses. The city is reachable from Tokyo in a few hours by car or public transportation, but this itinerary is designed specifically for driving. By horseback riding along the coast, having lunch at a cafe that has made a significant impact on the community after the 2011 triple disaster, and visiting a National Historical Treasure that is over 1,000 years old, you will travel through ancient history, medieval history, and modern times in Minamisoma.

    One-Day Drive in Minamisoma City

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Bentenjima

In a crescent shaped cove separated from the mainland on the small island known as Bentenjima Island, you will find the mysterious Bentenjima Shrine. The vermillion painted tori gate stands out against the jagged stone and the powerful waves. It is believed that the shrine was land based until an earthquake that occurred in 1410 resulted in the formation of this jagged rock island. The construction date of the original shrine is unknown. The island is also known as Wanigafuchi because, according to legend, a creature known as a “wanizame” (crocodile shark) lived on the island. Half crocodile, half shark, this creature can be seen in many old Japanese paintings. The creature may have been believed to cause the swirling water and violent waves that crashed against the rocks, sometimes resulting in people getting swept into the water. Another legend suggests that the wanizame once kidnapped a young woman from Iwaki who had wandered out to explore the island.This coast is lined with small round pebbles that shine when the water hits them. However, do not take any of these pebbles home, legend says that anyone who takes pebbles home from this coast will suffer from eye disease. This area was once a very popular destination for tourists and I highly recommend checking out the photos on the Iwaki city website linked below. It is all in Japanese, but you can read it with the google translate extension on google chrome browsers.
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